#Vico
Program version 1.1


Vico is a minimalistic Midi sequencer that is intended to be used in parallel with other software. 

"Vico" (with c like ts in "bats") just means "sequence" or "order" in Esperanto for obvious reasons.

In a loop- or pattern based environment you often want to have a 'free flowing' track in order to 
create an instrumental solo, for example. Sometimes you just want to record a sketch or an idea 
quickly and not open or create an entire DAW project.

Vico fulfills these conditions by connecting exactly one source to one output, and records and 
plays back in between. Or to put it another way: you only get one track, intended
for one instrument (but with convenient layers).

Vico has been written primarily for users of Patroneo, but has no closer technical bond. Patroneo 
is a program characterized by strict repetitions and constant reuse of very short patterns. With 
this you can quickly create whole arrangements for drums, bass and accompaniment chords, but a 
beautiful, long melody is extremely cumbersome. Therefore Vico wants to solve this problem.

However, all programs that run as JACK transport masters or JACK timebase masters are suitable as
"remote control".


This README is just a short introduction. Consult the manual (see below) for more information.

# Contact and Information

* Website https://www.laborejo.org
* Bugs and Issues: https://www.laborejo.org/bugs
* Git Repositories for all programs: https://git.laborejo.org
* Documentation and Manual https://www.laborejo.org/documentation/vico

# Installation and Starting

## Download

### Release Version
If the latest release is not available through your package manger you can build it yourself:
Download the latest code release on https://www.laborejo.org/downloads and extract it.

### Git Version
It is possible to clone a git repository.

`git clone https://git.laborejo.org/lss/vico.git`

## Dependencies
* Glibc
* Python 3.6 (maybe earlier)
* PyQt5 for Python 3
* DejaVu Sans Sarif TTF (Font) (recommended, but not technically necessary)


#### Build Dependencies
* Bash
* Nuitka >= 0.6 (maybe earlier. Optional when running from source dir)
* GCC (development is done on 8.2, but most likely you can use a much earlier version)

### Environment:
* Jack Audio Connection Kit must be running
* Non Session Manager

## Build
    ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
    make
    sudo make install


## Starting

There are multiple ways to run Vico which should give you the flexibility to configure your
system as you want.

We make no distinction if you installed Vico yourself or through the distributions package-manager.

The differences are: With or without NSM, with or without sound, installed or from the source dir.

### Installed with Non Session Manager (recommended)
Starting Vico through the Non Session Manager after you installed vico system-wide
is the recommended and only supported way. Start non-session-manager and load or create a new
session. Then use the button "Add Client to Session" and type in `vico`.
It should appear with an icon in the list and open its GUI.

### Installed without NSM
If you start vico directly it will present you with a dialog to choose your session directory.

You can also start vico from a terminal (or create a starter script).

`vico --save DIRECTORY`

Uses the given directory to save. The dir will be created or loaded from if already present. Use
the applications file menu to save (Ctrl+s).

You can use this to load and save the files from an existing NSM session. If you create a new
directory you can copy it manually to an NSM session directory, but that requires renaming the
directory to append the unique ID provided by NSM.

Sending SIGUSR1 to the program in this mode will trigger a save.

Closing through your window manager in this mode will actually quit the application without a
prompt to save changes.

## From source directory
You can run Vico after extracting the release archive or cloning from git, without installation.

### Calfbox
"Calfbox" is the name of our internal realtime midi/audio python module.

* You can either choose to install the module systemwide, which will make running all Laborejo Software Suite programs more convenient (when run from the source dir). Please consult https://github.com/kfoltman/calfbox 
* Or you just run `./configure` and `make calfbox` without subsequent install, which creates a `site-packages` directory in the source dir.
* A third option is `vico --mute` which runs without sound at all and does not need calfbox.

### From source directory with NSM
The developer uses this way to develop and use the software, so it will always be as stable as the
compiled version. But it is a bit less performant than building and installing it.

After extracting the release archive create a symlink from `vico` into your PATH. e.g. /usr/bin
or ~/bin, if that exists on your system.

If you compiled without installing you can also symlink to `./vico.bin`

### From source dir without NSM
Use `./vico --save` (see above). If you compiled without installing you can also run `./vico.bin`

### No NSM, no Make, No Sound
Combining the above options you can start the program directly after unpacking or cloning from git:

`./vico --save /tmp --mute`

Or even shorter:

`./vico -s /tmp -m`

This is the minimal run mode which is only useful for testing and development. But if you only want
to look at the GUI and are not in the mood to install anything -including dependencies-, go ahead.

